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The Obama Watch
Withholding Credit
Everyone knows the president deserves no credit for the recent employment gains — but do Republicans?
(Page 2 of 2)
A 2009 study of the “green energy” industry in Spain — an industry that can only survive with massive government subsidies, meaning taxes on the rest of us — concluded that “the U.S. should expect a loss of at least 2.2 jobs on average (per “green job” created), or about 9 jobs lost for every 4 created, to which we have to add those jobs that non-subsidized investments with the same resources would have created.”
Other highlights of the Spanish study:
• Since 2000 (and until the recent economic collapse), Spain spent over $800,000 for each “green job” created, including subsidies of more than $1.4 million per wind industry job.
• Each “green” megawatt installed destroys 5.28 jobs on average elsewhere in the economy; solar power has been particularly destructive.
• 90% of jobs created were temporary.
• Subsidies to green energy consumed about 3.5% of all personal income taxes collected.
In November and December, Spain announced massive cuts in solar and wind project subsidies even though a government minister recently said that Spain wants to double its renewable energy output over the next decade. It will be interesting to see whether its green Kool-Aid daydreams triumph over the economic reality. According to Bloomberg, last year, in Spain’s convoluted power payment system, where existing energy producers directly fund the subsidies to renewable energy, “the power system’s payment obligations exceeded its income by more than 4.6 billion euros ($6.5 billion).”
France has cut back on solar projects for the foreseeable future and Italy is slashing its efforts in both wind and solar power. South Africa is also looking to cut solar subsidies. And England is cutting the taxes on energy companies that have been used to subsidize solar projects.
Portugal, another European economic basket case, has also been on the “green energy” bandwagon. Though it has some advantage in its access to hydropower, CNN reports that “Being the third largest producer of renewable energy in Europe has meant a jump in costs — 15 percent - to household consumers of electricity in the last 10 years.”
Meanwhile the Netherlands, historically perhaps the most financially savvy European nation, is, according to press reports, “in a radical change of policy… reducing its targets for renewable energy and slashing the subsidies for wind and solar power [because] wind and solar subsidies are too expensive.”
And this is where Obama thinks the economic Holy Grail lies?
The danger for the U.S. economy lies in the Administration using executive agencies like the EPA to force economic changes it knows could never pass through Congress as legislation. It may only be a danger for two more years, but with enough determined enviros and socialists in positions of power and focused on the energy sector with a pathological hatred of fossil fuels, much damage can be done before the next president is sworn in. (And if Obama wins a second term, all bets on the future of America’s domestic energy production are off.)
In terms of politics, the key is not whether or not the recent uptick in employment is good news for the Obama Administration. While it is certainly better it than a growing unemployment rate, the critical point is that the Administration believes that the public will give it credit for the modestly improving situation. It is misjudging the public here just as it has with every major economic policy initiative since Obama took office.
The economy, even an improving economy, is Barack Obama’s Achilles heel; his claiming otherwise can only fool people if free-market citizens, politicians, and economists let him get away with it.
Congressional Republicans must remind the voting public over and over that the recent turn for the better in job creation occurred immediately following the November election. They must repeat, early and often, the value of the extension of the Bush Tax Cuts which the Democrats, in what may turn out to be very bad strategery on their part, agreed to let expire in two years and thus become a political issue again going into the 2012 elections. Republicans must not allow Obama to take credit for employment gains when his only impact has been the economic equivalent of putting a dozen leeches on a gravely ill patient who, fortunately, got better in spite of such quackery. And We the People must make the many vulnerable Democrats in the House and Senate understand that any move by the Administration, even if through regulatory channels nominally out of their control, to “require” Americans to pay more for heating and driving will be held against them with extreme electoral prejudice.
About the Author
Ross Kaminsky is a self-employed trader and investor and is a senior fellow of the Heartland Institute. He is the host of The Ross Kaminsky Show on Denver’s NewsRadio 850 KOA at 11 AM on most Sundays. You can reach Ross by e-mail at rossputin(at)rossputin(dot)com.
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Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 4.4.11 @ 7:07AM
I think this is the first month, and it may be the only one where the number of jobs allegedly created exceeded 150,000. That's the minimum number needed just to stay even.
So the latest numbers show job growth. But that's only one month, and those numbers are hardly encouraging for the long run.
What those numbers mask is that income in America continues to fall and at an alarming rate. While incomes fall, governments still want more income which appears to portend a dangerous situation as governments continue to live on more and more wealth seized from the public.
Between 2007 and 2009 incomes in America fell 4.8% and also fell 4.8% between the years 2000 to 2009. The number of offspring still living with their parents has skyrocketed to 60% between 2008 and 2010.
According to the Census Bureau, 34 states saw income declines for families, while only one state North Dakota, saw incomes increase, and not by much.
The facts are there is nothing to brag about here by either party.
In fact, the Republicans need to dig out these facts and highlight and use them as factual talking points. They are real and the public will relate to them because they are living the results of the scheme triggered by one idiotic government plan after another.
vtwin| 4.4.11 @ 1:54PM
Under Obama, with seven straight quarters of economic growth since enacting his stimulus package, the nation’s jobs picture has improved from the 750,000 jobs/month LOSS rate Obama inherited from Bush to a 200,000 jobs/ month GAIN rate we have today. That’s a positive jobs turnaround picture from the Bush years of nearly a MILLION jobs per month.
Looks like four more years?
Elbows Decerega| 4.4.11 @ 2:00PM
Vote for Obama and unemployment will never get above 8%. Oh yea he's the man. It is time to give him more time for golf and NCAA picks. What a joke. He is unsustainable. I am sure GE and the solar and wind con artists will miss him.
daddio| 4.4.11 @ 4:44PM
"Vote for Obama and unemployment will never get above 8%"
Or did he say "below"....
Steve A| 4.4.11 @ 2:22PM
Hey vtwin, Can you give me the unemployment #s per year from 2000 to 2011 & then list what party controlled Congress? If you break it down by month, it is even more fun.
vtwin| 4.4.11 @ 2:53PM
Steve A, I don’t know but here’s an interesting unemployment statistic: Bush is the first President in history to have less people working at the end of his second term in office than were working at the start of his first term in office.
WhiteBikerTrash| 4.4.11 @ 4:01PM
Hey V-Twin, hows the Honda running? You noticed that too? I also noticed that GWB started with a Republican Congress but ended with a Democratic Congress, and deficits didn't really balloon until the Democrats started writing the budgets.
Wasn't it after that when GWB started losing jobs?
Karl Lucider Marx| 4.4.11 @ 4:20PM
Yes, unfortunately for Bush and the nation the Democrats took over the Congress in 2006 and immediately started screwing things up.
skip| 4.4.11 @ 9:16PM
vtwin vtwin vtwin,
I'm on to you. You so perfectly manipulate every position to be absolutely incorrect one hundred percent of the time.
You vtwin are a conservative who in order to further the cause plays devil's advocate to underscore the conservative position effectively and efficiently.
You have been outed.
William L. Gensert| 4.4.11 @ 7:27AM
If you are an obese, two pack a day smoker with pneumonia, if it doesn’t kill you, you will eventually get better. Crediting the cigarettes, the fatty foods and all the extra calories, is just like crediting the president’s stimulus for recent economic upticks and increases in employment. It requires a suspension of disbelief only present in Obama sycophants and journalists.
suzy000| 4.4.11 @ 8:17AM
It was predicted in Nov. that a return of the House to the GOP would improve job numbers just on the KNOWLEDGE that the Lib machine's forward movement had been stopped. But a recovery in full swing based on the GOP control of the House was not in the tea leaves. Obama's taking credit of this "new" job development will be shortlived. Housing numbers are so bad that a double dip recession does look evident.
Louis Jenkins| 4.4.11 @ 8:41AM
Ain't it grand? The government is on the verge of a shut down, and Obama claims things are getting peachier. Let it shut down and send the government employees packing for a few days. Jobs are created by the general business atmosphere, not by some person at a desk in DC. Yeah, the jobs created so far have been led by an extension of the Bush tax policy, but don't get too happy. Elections can change things quickly, and we could be back into the doldrums of a Democratic led congress in less than two years.
Louis Jenkins| 4.4.11 @ 8:41AM
Ain't it grand? The government is on the verge of a shut down, and Obama claims things are getting peachier. Let it shut down and send the government employees packing for a few days. Jobs are created by the general business atmosphere, not by some person at a desk in DC. Yeah, the jobs created so far have been led by an extension of the Bush tax policy, but don't get too happy. Elections can change things quickly, and we could be back into the doldrums of a Democratic led congress in less than two years.
JP| 4.4.11 @ 9:34AM
The uptick in private jobs is due to Obama's and Bernecke's easy money policies. When you're borrowing $4 billion/day some jobs are bound to be created. Each job cost the taxpayer $480,000. For some in the Democratic Party that is a bargin.
Dan| 4.4.11 @ 11:11AM
Did President Obama steal his 2012 re-election campaign slogan from a rival? http://t.co/pau3Yqu
vtwin| 4.4.11 @ 2:36PM
“Congressional Republicans must remind the voting public over and over that the recent turn for the better in job creation occurred immediately following the November election. They must repeat, early and often, the value of the extension of the Bush Tax Cuts.”
Do you really think the voters are dumb enough to believe that the “extension of the Bush Tax Cuts” which was in place when the economy crashed or that the defunding of Planned Parenthood and NPR by the Republicans is what made the difference?
WhiteBikerTrash| 4.4.11 @ 4:18PM
Ummm, V-Twin, Do you pay attention at all? Those tax cuts are now the Obama tax cuts! Are you really so dumb to believe that repeating George W. Bush's name will make it less than Obama's signature that extended that law and allowed this weak "Recovery" to continue?
And has Obama signed the bill that will defund PBS and Planned Parenthood? You know that NPR is just a branch of PBS. So are you so dumb that you thought such a vacuous argument could truly bend all but the most ill informed reader? Or is that the line you've bought?
arlo price| 4.4.11 @ 9:59PM
Wait until the 3rd 1/4 results are released.
Let's Roll
Joe Hamilton| 4.4.11 @ 11:28PM
Obama has done everything possible to permanently damage the US economy. Herbert Hoover was an economic genius in comparison. The rising price of imported oil transfers increasing billions of dollars from the US to some of our worse enemies such as the Saudis. Obama is doing everything to increase this loss of wealth by continuing his insane policies which , if enacted would raise the price of a gallon of gas to $6. His incredibly ignorant ideas are too numerous to mention. He is another democrat President who can thank a Republican congress for any improvement in the economy.
Johnny| 4.5.11 @ 6:46AM
Amen, JH, and in the same vain let us remember when Bush, whom I do not particularly like, is blamed over and over, was dealing with the dem congress that sank this ship in the first place, BARNEY FRANK via Freddie & Fannie!
Sam Levi| 4.5.11 @ 5:54PM
Why, I love Obama. Thanks to him, I had an extended two year vacation, without pay. When my vacation ended, I found the privledge of returning to work, in the same industry making 47.86 percent of what I made while that dastardly Bush was president.
Creative Recreation | 8.10.11 @ 10:55PM
is good
aluma wallet | 10.9.11 @ 2:27AM
I could have beat them both with a 1,000 good guerilla fighters. By the time they formed up to take on my attack I'd be gone leaving hundreds of dead on their side.
dual saw | 10.19.11 @ 11:22PM
Balance being further integrated to provide enterprise application deployment on a separate partition without data leakage into consumer class applications.
Peanut Machine | 10.27.11 @ 2:40AM
The penalties sadly do not include being shot, whipped and then secured in the stocks for a fortnight
Dried Fruits | 11.15.11 @ 9:18PM
I'd received a text, read the message, invited me to respond and then sent the response without me having to touch the phone. Now that really is useful and a lot safer.